March 2, 2007

As I write this I'm listening to the first spring training game of the New York Yankees. Can warm weather be far behind?

Hideki Matsui just made a sliding catch to end the inning. Yankees are ahead of the Minnesota Twins. Life is eternal! Another season unfolds, like the daffodils –– base hit for Matsui –– and returning robins and other birdies –– ball in the dirt, ball four –– Yes, we have survived another winter! We are alive! Our lips are chapped, but our spirit is exalted –– Robbie Cano flies out to right –– Praise God from whom all blessings flow, bases loaded here below.

Denard Span at the plate for Minnesota. He was playing right down the road in New Britain last summer and now he's facing No. 65 on the mound. Who the heck is 65? Zounds! The Twins score one run –– What's wrong with the Yankees? How can they allow one run? Kevin Slowey on the mound for the Twins. I talked to him at the Rock Cats picnic last summer. He's young, tall, lithe, muscular, athletic -- everything I'm not.

Yankees up, Yankees down, bases left loaded. What's wrong with the Yanks? Words and phrases I haven't heard since last fall –– breaking ball for a strike, and the 0-2, foul ball, strike, down looking. Wait a minute, what was that guy's name?

Oh, how I wish the Yankees and the Red Sox would put names on the backs of the uniforms. Now pitching for the New York Yankees is number 65, Phil Hughes. Who? Next on the mound is Phil Ohlandorf. Come on! You know what? Yankees load the bases –– Oh, how I long for the smell of freshly cut grass, hot dogs, beer, popcorn, french fries –– breaking ball for a strike –– Who's up? Who? Where did this guy come from? Oh, right, the trade involving Randy Johnson.

What's this guy's name? He looks like he's 14 years old. Who are these people? The Yanks should do like NASCAR and electronically have an arrow and a label point to each player.

Listen to me. The first baseball game of spring training and I'm complaining already. Typical Yankees fan.

Bob, you careen bullets all over Hartford, decry political dictators and now paint baseball as a diversion (along with other sports used as religions)....what I think you are portraying is the modern day version of Rome's bread and circuses. Will the fires come next? I see the General Assembly creating more gun control and yet, like Hartford, they are blind to real cause and an effective long term solution.

Larry, I'm not a pessimist. I think the overall trend in civilization is up, but there are a lot of valleys and side tracks on the way. Compare modern life to the Dark Ages. I think much of our mood comes from having over six years of that @#&*@! in the White House. We'll feel better when he's gone and Dennis Kucinich is president. Or not.